Have you ever been quietly sipping a pint or four at your local watering hole and found yourself engaged in a spirited (pun intended) debate about, “Who’s better?  Beatles or Stones?”  While I have my opinions and theories (and our COO has his), a few songs from both bands lend themselves perfectly to 4 steps you need to take prior to diving headlong into marketing automation.

1.    Start Me Up – yes, clichéd and possibly overplayed, but legitimate advice.  Before jumping into marketing automation, it makes sense to start your initiative with a clear direction and focus.  First, define your pain points and how marketing automation software would ideally help solve them.  From there, outline the features of the marketing automation solution and how each component can work together to reduce, if not remove, these pain points.

2.    Come Together – track one on Abbey Road gives you a crucial piece of advice about shaping your marketing automation efforts – come together and get buy-in from the areas of your organization that will be working to implement the solution such as sales, IT, operations, etc. If there is any dissention about the technology, methodology or value, it is best to resolve it BEFORE you get into the nitty-gritty of implementation.

3.    Paperback Writer – this catchy tune is about a novelist submitting his book to a publisher, but you get the gist of it. Great content is the foundation for a successful inbound marketing campaign.  Keeping readers engaged requires educational, interesting or just plain cheeky content that is more than a chest-thumping sales pitch.  Audit your current materials, identify gaps and work to produce articles, posts, videos, etc. that educate prospects in new and informative ways.

4.    Time is on My Side – this song is all about patience and that’s something you’ll probably need as you fine-tune and hone your first marketing automation campaigns.  As with any new platform or tool, there is always a learning curve associated with understanding how to use it, best practices, etc.  Set realistic expectations with your leadership team about the different stages and objectives so everyone is on the same page.

With these four tunes in mind, you’ll be well on your way to get started with marketing automation so you aren’t singing, “The Last Time” or “Yesterday.”  Who is your favorite musical muse – Beatles or Stones?